1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the placement of a catheter in a human body and, more precisely, to the placement of a catheter within a channel in the human body with the channel having a restriction therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Catheters have been used by health care professionals for some time. They are generally used in the cardiopulmonary and gastrointestinal systems of the body due to the fact that these systems include channels into which the catheters are placed.
The catheters are used to introduce, measure, or extract fluids from the body. Particularly with regard to measuring the properties of the fluid of the body, proper placement of the catheter is of the utmost importance.
Proper placement of a catheter has been achieved by various means in the past Certain catheters have been equipped with miniature video camera capability. This allows the health care worker placing the catheter to see the position of the catheter with respect to the body. While accurate, this method has proven to be too expensive for many procedures.
Catheters have also been equipped with means for sensing ambient pressure for the purpose of proper placement. For example, Synectics Medical AB has developed a catheter, including a pressure sensing means, which is designed to be placed in the upper gastrointestinal tract of a body. The catheter is inserted into the nose of the patient and threaded into the stomach of the patient. The catheter is then extracted slowly. The stomach has comparatively lower ambient pressure than that of the lower esophagus. The pressure sensing means is connected to an external meter which shows the rise in ambient pressure. As the catheter is extracted, the pressure sensing means enters the esophagus and the pressure on the pressure sensing means rises. The catheter is then retained in this position.
The difference between the ambient pressure in the stomach and the ambient pressure in the esophagus may be very small, inhibiting accurate placement of the catheter. Also, the catheter must be extracted slowly. If the catheter is extracted too quickly, the catheter may be misplaced and may provide faulty data. Alternatively, the procedure may need to be repeated, causing discomfort to the patient. For these reasons, extensive training is required to place the existing catheters and, even with training, proper placement is difficult.
It is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a catheter which facilitates the proper placement thereof.
An additional objective is to provide a catheter that is inexpensive to build and inexpensive to use based, in part, on minimal training required to use it.
Another objective is to provide a catheter with an inflatable and deflatable balloon as a part thereof.
Another object of the invention is to teach a method of placing such a catheter precisely within a human body.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.